It’s week two of the Deck the Home Blog Hop and this week we’re tackling wooden projects! So many amazing signs and pretty projects… I don’t think I could pick a favorite if I tried. Of course with 26 bloggers there are way to many projects to look through anyways.

Last week we worked on fun door decor which was a bit more focused… with wooden decor our projects are all over the place! So once you tackle this little tray make sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of this post and check out 25 additional project ideas! While I’m a little partial to my own *cough cough* there are a bunch of really cute projects for all types of styles.

In the meantime here’s a fast stencil project that ends with a really cute tray!

Supplies:

• Cricut Explore Air 2
• Fine-Point Cutting Blade
• Standard Cutting Mat (that’s the green one!)
• Cricut Cut File
• Stencil Vinyl
• Transfer Tape
• Weeding Tool
• Wooden Tray
• Chalk Paste
• Scraper

Need help picking your perfect machine? I’ve got you covered!

Step 1: Cut Your Vinyl Stencil

Alright y’all the very first step is to cut out your stencil. You can grab the Cricut cut file here and then send it through your Cricut easy peezy lemon squeezy! I always like to use a bright color for my stencil that will contrast from the color I’m painting (or in this case chalking?) so that I can tell where I’ve painted (chalked?) and which areas are naked.

Since we’re working on a Christmas tray I figured we’d go with a bright green!

After your stencil is cut it’s time to weed the design (or take all of the negative bits of the design off your cutting mat) and use transfer tape to apply the stencil to your tray. If you haven’t used a Cricut to cut out your design and transfer it before I have a quick tutorial for this step right here.

The hardest part of applying the stencil (for me!) is always waiting for the Cricut to finish cutting… I am the most impatient person ever.

Step 2: Apply Your Chalk Paste

Now that our stencil is in place it’s time for the fun part! The chalk! If you’re painting you would paint your piece at this point but I decided to use a bit of chalk paste.

If you haven’t used chalk paste before it’s super easy… you put a little bit on your stencil and then use a hard card to squeegee it off! It’s super fun and super quick which is my favorite part.

PLUS if you don’t seal this bad boy you can easily wash it off and add a new stencil when the holidays are over.

I don’t do chalk couture or anything like that but I have a few little tubs here and there that I’ve bought for personal use. If you’re looking to try the chalk paste (and you should… it’s so much fun) I get mine from my friend Jeanie over at Create and Babble. Happy shopping!

Step 3: Peel the Vinyl Stencil Off

This may be the best part!

Once you’ve put the chalk paste onto your stencil you’ll turn right around and take the stencil off! You want to remove the stencil while the paste is still wet… if you wait until the paste dries it typically gets very messy when you try to take the stencil off. The edges get jagged since they are attached to the paste still on the stencil!

So as soon as your stencil is filled in and all the excess paste is squeegeed off go ahead and lift your stencil off the design. Start on one side and slowly peel your stencil off from one side to the other!

If you have little pieces that weren’t attached to the over-all stencil (say the middle of an o) you’ll have to remove those bits separately. I just used my weeding tool and washed it afterwards… easy peezy.

Once your stencil is removed wait for the chalk to dry and then touch up if needed. Typically you shouldn’t need much (if any!) touch up but if you placed your stencil thinking the paint on your tray was dry and it wasn’t… you’ll probably have to touch it up.

Basically I decided I wanted a gray background on my tray and painted it real quick… then started my project thinking it was dry and dun dun dun.

It wasn’t.

The gray background was still wet.

It made a giant mess.

Don’t be like me… only do this project on a dry background.

Trust me.

Step 4: Enjoy!

Either way it turned out A-M-A-ZING once the touch-up was finished and the chalk was dry. This was a really quick and easy project (even with my wet paint mishap!) so I imagine it would be even quicker and easier if done on a dry surface!

Worth a try anyways!

I absolutely love how it turned out!

Looking for more Christmas?! Here are the rest of my fun holiday projects from this year!

Of course, I’m not alone at this fun holiday project party decor trend… don’t forget the 25 other bloggers I’ve teamed up with to bring you all kinds of fun wooden holiday decor projects! We’ll have different holiday goodness for you every Sunday for the next THREE weeks. That’s a total of five weeks of fun projects!

So here’s a few more door projects to tackle if you’re looking for inspiration!

Have fun looking through all of the projects… and don’t forget to pin this fun DIY Christmas Tray for later!

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